1897 Original French Belle Époque Fashion Poster, Été

1897 Original French Belle Époque Fashion Poster, Été

About The Poster: This lovely and detailed poster is an original from the 1897 French Summer fashion season. At the end of the 1800s women were very much interested in the latest styles, and posters like this one gained importance as a means of advertising the newest French clothing designs.

"Fashionable women's clothing styles shed some of the extravagances of previous decades (so that skirts were neither crinolined as in the 1850s, nor protrudingly bustled in back as in the late 1860s and mid-1880s, nor tight as in the late 1870s), but corseting continued unmitigated, or even slightly increased in severity. Early 1890s dresses consisted of a tight bodice with the skirt gathered at the waist and falling more naturally over the hips and undergarments than in previous years.

Dresses typical of the time period had high necks, wasp waists, puffed sleeves and bell-shaped skirts. Evening gowns had a squared decolletage, a wasp-waist cut and skirts with long trains." (Wikipedia)